The present invention relates to magnetic data storage and retrieval systems, and more particularly relates to a laser assisted magnetic recording system.
Magnetic based disk drives are well known data storage systems. In magnetic drives, magneto-resistive elements on magnetic heads or sliders are typically used. The development of giant magneto-resistive (GMR) heads has significantly increased the data storage capacity of magnetic disk drives. However, magnetic storage drive technology is subject to the superparamagnetic effect, which limits the areal density of traditional magnetic recording systems.
As an alternative to magnetic drives, optical data storage techniques are known. Efforts in optical storage include laser on a flying optical head, optically assisted magnetic recording, and near-field magneto-optical recording.
The use of a laser on a flying optical head can provide a low cost, compact wafer-based design which allows a very small spot size, but such designs require phase change media which suffer from cyclability and thermal problems. Furthermore, such optical head designs exhibit disadvantages such as poor readout, difficult tracking and limited transfer rates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,617, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a semiconductor read/write laser design for an optical storage apparatus.
Optically assisted magnetic recording techniques have been proposed. Such techniques could provide relatively high readout signal to noise ratios, high transfer rates and stable recording media. However, disadvantages include problems with thermal/magnetic gradient alignment, domain shape, head complexity and alignment, light delivery complexity and tracking.
Magneto-optical recording designs also have limitations. In conventional magneto-optical (MO) disk drives, data is read as a clockwise or counter-clockwise polarization rotation imposed on a polarized laser light by the up or down orientations of magnetic domains within an area of stored data. The minimum area that the data can comprise is a function of the size of an optical spot formed by the polarized light. The information embedded in the polarization rotation requires an optical readout apparatus which typically comprises bulky and complex optical elements, some of which are located on a magneto-optical head. The optical elements can degrade the signal to noise ratio of the information signal obtained from the polarization rotation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,889,641 and 5,986,978, which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose disk drive systems in which light is delivered from a remote source to a target spot on a disk via an optical channel. However, the optical components of such light delivery systems add complexity and cost to such systems.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing, and to address other deficiencies of the prior art.
The present invention provides a laser assisted magnetic recording system including a semiconductor laser and magnetic write coil integrally formed into a slider.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a slider of a magnetic recording apparatus comprising a magnetic recording section, and a semiconductor laser section integrally formed adjacent the magnetic recording section.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of making a slider of a magnetic recording apparatus comprising the steps of providing a semiconductor laser section of the slider, and integrally forming a magnetic recording section adjacent the semiconductor laser section.